It’s a sentence no one likes to say or hear: “You’re fired.”
But amid a growing focus on preventing violence in the workplace in the wake of events like the shooting at Aurora’s Henry Pratt Co. last week, some companies are considering whether there’s a better way to handle potentially volatile terminations.
The goal: balance respect for the employee being let go with the safety of co-workers. And no one is taking tips from Donald Trump in “The Apprentice.”
In Aurora, police said that 45-year-old Gary Martin was being fired when he turned a gun on his colleagues, killing five and wounding five police officers.
Workplace shootings like the one at Henry Pratt are extremely rare. According to the FBI, three out of 50 active shooter incidents in 2016 and 2017 involved former employees at a workplace. Two had been fired in the prior two months.
However uncommon, there’s a growing focus on finding ways to reduce risk in cases where an employer believes there’s reason for concern, said Johnny Taylor, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management.
Some organizations are moving the place where they conduct terminations closer to exits or security or moving the entire human resources office, Taylor said. That avoids parading a just-fired worker through the office and makes it easier to control the situation if the worker doesn’t take the news well.
“It just adds salt in the wound. What we’ve learned is to try to do this in a way that is filled with dignity and respect,” he said.
But even traditional notions of dignity and respect — like delivering the news in person — can take a back seat to safety. Some companies will weigh whether it’s better to fire a particular worker by phone or email.
“As inhumane as it’s perceived to be…if there’s any indication in the person’s workplace behavior or background or things that give pause, by all means don’t put more people in danger,” Taylor said.
Not all remote firings mean the company considers the employee a potential threat, said Jodi Coplan, president of the Northern Illinois Society for Human Resource Management and a global human resources leader for Cognizant, an information technology services firm.
She works virtually and said she had conducted several terminations over the phone. Cognizant does make sure the employee’s access to company facilities and technology is shut down before they get the news, she said.
Ken Boudreau, CEO of Chicago-based Embassy Security Group, recommends delivering the news in a small interview room away from other employees rather than bringing the person up to executive offices, and involving as few people as possible.
“I don’t care how nice you’re trying to be. It’s not going to be received well,” he said.
For that reason, companies increasingly are planning for the worst. That means establishing crisis action teams that can be called in when someone raises concerns about an employee, experts say.
Those teams often include representatives from the legal, human resources and security departments, along with a manager and potentially a member of local law enforcement, who can intervene early to prevent potential violence, said Matthew Doherty, senior vice president of threat and violence risk management at Hillard Heintze, a Chicago-based security risk management firm.
Police are ”not going to be in human resources in uniform, but if there’s a concerning termination or a bad day with layoffs, they want to know so they can be in close proximity,” he said.
In certain cases, companies also want to monitor employees who are a concern after they have been dismissed. That can include keeping an eye on what Doherty calls “open source intelligence,” such as social media activity, for signs that the person is acquiring weapons or stalking someone at their former workplace. In one case, a recently terminated employee posted a selfie taken in front of an executive’s home, Doherty said.
“The days of firing someone on a Friday and hoping the problem goes away on Monday, it’s not a good approach if you’re concerned about their behavior,” he said.
Not all approaches are punitive.
Companies may consider offering outplacement services to encourage workers to look forward or providing mental health services to make sure the person can continue getting treatment.
Extending benefits to a fired worker who has prompted concerns may sound counterintuitive, but the goal is to ensure a “soft landing,” said Michael Crane, a Northbrook-based security consultant. Exit packages can also come with strings attached, like requiring the employee not to contact former colleagues or cutting off insurance coverage if they miss appointments, Crane said.
But efforts to beef up security and minimize risks won’t help if employers aren’t aware of any red flags.
A spokeswoman for Henry Pratt Co.’s parent, Mueller Water Products, declined to comment on whether the company was aware of Martin’s history of violence, including an aggravated assault conviction that disqualified him from legally owning a gun.
Authorities said that conviction did not show up on two background checks conducted by Illinois State Police, which allowed Martin to purchase a handgun, the Tribune reported.
That’s why experts recommend companies worried about workplace violence start by reviewing policies meant to encourage employees to come forward when they have concerns about a co-worker and train workers to identify potentially worrisome employees or situations that might increase the risk of violence.
Many larger companies are already getting better at being proactive with those policies and training, but some smaller and midsize firms “might still have a feeling it’s not going to happen here,” Crane said. “Once somebody has a problem, that mindset changes.”
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